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The Codfish Car Mystery
This beautiful photo shows off a happy event: The inauguration of a cannery dedicated to the Codfish elaboration. It was located in the beautiful atlantic island of Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain), but we haven´t got more details apart from the name of the company, clearly visible in the front facade. Due to the period clothings, the shape of the building and specially the car in the right...

What is it? Quiz #400Here we have a chassis produced by its makers for the 1909 season to meet the expected demand for a high-class reasonably priced car of medium horse-power. The company used to make a car of another name from 1904 to 1906 and then concentrated on their own range of models from 1906 to 1915. Based in England they had a very good engineering name and you will perhaps tell us what other aspects of tra...

Ivy and JackWe suspect this is a 'staged' photograph because Ivy understood the value of publicity to help with her love of motor racing - she is of course Ivy Cummings. The picture shows her with a 1925 Singer but a 1916 copy of Lightcar & Cyclecar magazine printed a story about her entitled 'A plucky young lady driver. Her first drive round Brooklands age 11½.' where we learn the first Light Car she dr...

Australian Austin barnfind Ross Nerdal from Canberra (Australia) writes: "The capital of Australia is Canberra, being only one hundred years old it is not renowned for its barns but there are some to be found. Jack Palmer bought a 1927 Austin 12hp tourer in 1965. He was going to restore it. It was low mileage and running well. Into the shed it went and stayed. 50 years later it has been sold to me and we dragged it out for...

Holiday post cardsMost of us remember the days before computers, texts and instant communication where we wrote letters and post cards to each other, so it was very pleasing when the post man dropped such a post card on the mat recently sent from a friend on holiday. The tradition of holiday post cards goes back a long way, certainly before cars, but inevitably the motor car started to feature on them around 1900 ...

Beached BullnoseIt's that time of year when schools have broken up for the summer holiday and everyone heads for the seaside. But beware the temptation to get your car nearer the water than your neighbours, because cars are heavy and the shingle will not give any grip - so you sink as these girls found out in 1924 when their Bullnose Morris refused to budge.Don't think sand is any safer. It's one thing to drive o...

Gran Premio Argentino de Baquets
Ah... the open road. Wind in your hair, no mudguards, loud exhaust and good friends in front and behind. Fabian Gallucci has sent us some pictures of cars enjoying the roads of Argentina. The poster announces the 2015 Gran Premio Argentino de Baquets route from Buenos Aires to Patagonia from 12 to 21 September and the rules can be found HERE. (Online translation). We like their attentio...

A Strachur Loch Fyne tourist cars MysteryThis picture of the past may be a view on the future as well. When the private ownership of automobiles may be history due to environmental challenges... And we all once more will favour open top motoring in groups over the individual variety... Well let's forget about such dark thoughts. Let's concentrate on which (omni)busses are stopping for an afternoon tea in the pre 1914 scenery above......

About Quiz #399: Worthington RunaboutIn last week's quiz, we showed you a picture of a Worthington Runabout made by two brothers of that name in Hythe, Kent. Records show this prototype was made in 1909 and development work continued to 1912 but plans to sell their cars for £90 never came to fruition. The first engine used was a horizontally opposed twin of 8hp built in their workshops, but was later replaced bythe 9hp J.A.P. V...

Have fur, will fly
Holiday time is upon us and the main roads are filling up with cars. How can you escape the traffic jams? This lady in C 1920 San Francisco scrambled into her Studebaker and drove to her local airfield where the pilot of the biplane awaits his passenger with a smile. The aircraft is a Curtiss Jenny, popular amongst barnstormers and famous for being the plane with two plucky souls a...

Unidentified wheel of aircraft. Bugatti? (UPDATE - see more details below)A reader has sent us this picture of a wheel and he wonders if it came off an aircraft? Of course, it looks exactly like a Bugatti car wheel, but there are some slight differences. This picture of the wheel beside a car wheel shows how the 'blades' are not so wide and a also bit longer with less material around the centre hub. We cannot see splines in the centre bearing nor can we see any markings...

Far-flung Röhr
The first cars arrived in Egypt at the turn of the last century and mostly of French manufacture. By the end of the 1920s, The Royal Automobile Club of Egypt boasted hundreds of members and the country was undergoing rapid redevelopment to accommodate this non-traditional means of transportation. Still, an eight-cylinder Röhr Typ R would have been an exotic sight at the pyramids of Gi...

Renault for a soprano If you were in Paris in 1909 you might have watched a performance of Rigoletto starring Dame Nellie Melba and Enrico Caruso and you might have seen Caruso leaving in his type AX Renault which impressed Melba so much she quickly paid Louis Renault a visit at his Paris villa, where he promised to deliver a new 4 cylinder 20HP Type BK Renault.The first references to Dame Nellie's involvement with th...

1923 Gérin Aérodyne re-visited You may remember when Reg Winstone displayed his unique 1923 Gérin Aérodyne on our stand at 2012 Retromobile and was seen again this year on Bonham's stand where it found its new owner, Olivier. He sends us some pictures of the engine after stripping it down and investigation. "...We are making progress on the Gerin and every time we take something apart we are taken back by the engineerin...

a very nice 'true story' by Peter Irlenborn:Some years ago I learned that there was a pre-war Voisin located somewhere in Turkey. The model and the year of production was not mentioned. Gabriel Voisin with his brother Charles, had produced over ten thousand flying bombers for the Fren...

What is it? Quiz #399Is it a 'cyclecar' or a 'runabout' - we've seen it called both. Made in England on the south coast and starts as far back as 1909. Not only do we want the name, but also what went on beneath the bonnet. If you can show us another picture of this car you are very likely to win! The makers evidently liked to stay clean because the mudguards cover more than half the wheel.Please give us any relevant ...

Chain-Gang Nash ladies drive 1000 miles in 24 hours.Hot off the press comes news of a successful jolly where a group of die-hard enthusiasts from the Frazer Nash Car Club headed for France in their faithful cars in order to put themselves and their motors to the test by attempting to drive 1000 miles in 24 hours.The smiles on Lucy and Jane's faces tell us they finished on time - Jane with just 5 minutes to spare! She says, "Best moment was finishin...

Alfa Romeo Museum - From 1910 to the future
Rick Nicolaas writes: "Last Thursday visited the new re-opened Alfa Romeo museum in Arese, Italy. Close to Milan. It opened on the 30th June after being closed for 4 years. It is worth the visit when you are in the neighbourhood. From the 1911 A.L.F.A. 15HP Corsa to the last model Alfa Romeo Giulia."The Alfa Romeo Museum has been completely renovated and is even more prestigious. The ...

Stan Laurel's 1928 car a Buick or Hupmobile?Randy Skretvedt sends this charming picture of the young Laurel family: "This photo shows film comedian Stan Laurel, his wife Lois and daughter Lois Jr., in the driveway of their home in 1928, 718 N. Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills. We are trying to determine the make and model of the car. Some think it's a Buick 28-20, others think it's a Hupmobile. It's almost certainly a 1928 model. Many th...

Light car Mysteries 1922 (UPD. Galloway & Mathis)Moray Letham writes: "This interesting photo was found in a motoring book I had, written on the back it says 'Scottish 6 day Light Car Trial 1922, Billy Barker Galloway'. The registration numbers are clear, maybe the cars still exist... I would be delighted to present this photo to the current owner if he was found. Keep up the good work on the best "old car" site on the internet!!"We enjoy re...